Must admit my heart rate picked up when I saw the headline with the words 'imminent'!
With DFS tracking on schedule, of course this could be just 5 weeks away now.
Whenever I hear Eugene or Jurie speak, I never fail to dig their no nonsense, 'this is what it is' delivery. There's no need to pump the numbers.
The June Pilot plant test work announcement of a 4% increase will be one of several improvements IMO coming in the DFS, to balance any cost blowouts. Perhaps some surprises too, bearing in mind previous thoughts from Jurie on Largo's vertical integration. Eugene was careful to say I can't say anything further at this point.
The keep it local approach with Steelpoortdrift is going to avoid many of the global downside risks at present; though South African inflation is in the 7's at present like many other places -
https://tradingeconomics.com/south-africa/inflation-cpi.
To counter this current narrative, today's SMH/Age had an excellent article from their Economics Head Ross Gittens, who broke down the inflation bad guy and explained these are essentially one-off costs (COVID-supply chains&housing costs/Russia-Ukraine - fuel & food/in Aust - floods - food).
Of course the world must move from emergency COVID-fighting interest rate levels, but let's keep where we are in perspective!
Below is the 50-year US Fed rates chart. Doom and gloom is great on the AMC channel with TWD zombies poking their putrid heads out of all corners, but not what history is telling us. Many of us maybe are caught up in a COVID Groundhog Day loop and can't see clearly outside of our 2020-present bubble - we should be wary we aren't becoming the walkers of said apocalypse shows.
With EV rollout continuing to be hampered by lithium shortages for the next decade, I see the need for a real shift to coralling Li-ion batteries for vehicle use, together with a focus on flow batteries to ensure both transport and stationary storage clean transitions can happen concurrently. Enter Stage Right VR8
As one of the lowest cost emerging producers, VR8 are more likely than their peers to get the funding green light, so though many may be calling bad/unfortunate timing, we are best placed as we can be in the sector.
I'm sensing a turnaround in market sentiment, US futures green ahead of their July interest rate announcement overnight, more focus to come on renewable energy ahead of COP27 in Egypt...Exciting times to be a VR8 holder
(20min delay)